I've been always impressed by the importance and power of open source and how it's been changing the world for the past few decades. Open source always offers free license and access to its source codes; therefore, it has a huge number of users and developers around the world. It's been getting bigger and better since everyone contributes a little bit to its growth. A lot of people have started building up their own companies based on Linux as the foundation, especially companies developing games.
As a gamer, I found it really surprising that one of my favorite game companies, Valve, has been a Linux consumer for quite long. Valve launched their first Linux game server back in 1999. Linux, nowadays, plays as the majority of game servers; and more than 1 million of Linux game servers are out there around the world. It's also used internally for the source codes, animations, models, assets, and etc. Free open source code is one of the key features that makes Linux become dominant in the software industry.
Gabe Newell, Valve co-founder, believes that Linux is really the future of gaming. It is typically used in the gaming industry even though Linux gamers have not got a lot of attention. Several years ago, no one was sure about the direction that PC industry would be going; however, Valve founders saw a new platform, Linux, standing out among other platforms such as XBox and PlayStation. Linux emerged as a perfect layer with full control over pricing and other features. It led to a new trend of open systems.
Going back to the era of all the consoles that came from that time, gaming was like almost closed. If you got a high quality graphical game, your computers wouldn't be able to handle it because of the memory and graphics card technology back then. However, PC graphics eventually reduced that shortage of technology, and the Internet took over the place of private gaming networks.
Now it is the era of digital distribution, online gaming, and social gaming. These changes in the industry of gaming really started from the innovative open systems which will have greater advantages over regular systems. When given source codes, the heart of any software, even the users of open systems can have big contributions to things that a company produces. For instance, the Android community creates contents ten times bigger than those that any Android company's developers do.
As a gamer, I found it really surprising that one of my favorite game companies, Valve, has been a Linux consumer for quite long. Valve launched their first Linux game server back in 1999. Linux, nowadays, plays as the majority of game servers; and more than 1 million of Linux game servers are out there around the world. It's also used internally for the source codes, animations, models, assets, and etc. Free open source code is one of the key features that makes Linux become dominant in the software industry.
Gabe Newell, Valve co-founder, believes that Linux is really the future of gaming. It is typically used in the gaming industry even though Linux gamers have not got a lot of attention. Several years ago, no one was sure about the direction that PC industry would be going; however, Valve founders saw a new platform, Linux, standing out among other platforms such as XBox and PlayStation. Linux emerged as a perfect layer with full control over pricing and other features. It led to a new trend of open systems.
Going back to the era of all the consoles that came from that time, gaming was like almost closed. If you got a high quality graphical game, your computers wouldn't be able to handle it because of the memory and graphics card technology back then. However, PC graphics eventually reduced that shortage of technology, and the Internet took over the place of private gaming networks.
Now it is the era of digital distribution, online gaming, and social gaming. These changes in the industry of gaming really started from the innovative open systems which will have greater advantages over regular systems. When given source codes, the heart of any software, even the users of open systems can have big contributions to things that a company produces. For instance, the Android community creates contents ten times bigger than those that any Android company's developers do.
Therefore, in my point of view, if open source is the direction that gaming industry is heading to, Linux would be the best choice for both developers and gamers. However, it did, do and will continue requiring a lot of efforts from the users and all the companies that are interested in this field.
As a huge gamer and fan of Valve, I didn't even know that Valve has been using Linux since 1999! It's interesting to see Valve deciding to go with Linux, despite the low number of Linux gamers. However, Newell has said that Microsoft has moved into a locked-in style of computing. I think I read the same article as the one you did, and it states there are now 198 games on Linux. It'll be interesting to see if Linux truly becomes the future of gaming.
ReplyDeleteWith all other gaming console coming out at the end of the year (Xbox one and PlayStation 4), I am also looking forward to what Valve has to offer. Linux is also one thing that I completely forgot about when I wrote about open source. I was so concentrated on applications and completely forgot about the OS. Even thought it is not my prefer choice of Operating System, being the only free Operating System made is a good alternative for a lot of users, and likewise businesses. With the increase in the amount of users, I am sure that future games will consider Linux as one of OS that they would develop for. I can't wait to see the future of gaming.
ReplyDeleteGaming on Linux is a very interesting topic but I feel like you didn't dig deep into the topic. What are the advantages and disadvantages? I love games and as everyone knows Windows is the only way to go currently for PC gaming. I'm not too confident in Linux becoming the future of gaming. Server-side and desktop-side are two different topics as well, that is unless the future of gaming is completely cloud based. I think the advantage with Linux is more customizability for the creators and the users but that might be its downfall as well due to games being easily hackable. I'm going to look into Linux gaming and try to gain more knowledge, thanks for getting me started on this topic!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised when knowing that Valve has been using Linux for years. For years, I thought Steam developed their own system on Windows, and they just recently start using Linux, but my impression was wrong. There is one face that I know about Linux is it has evolved in the past few years to become a remarkable opponent to Windows and Mac OS in providing working environment and entertainment. And who can tell how far Linux can go? It could dominates the other OS in providing entertainment environment too.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post, but it sorely needs to link to where you got these words of Newell's! Your readers would be better off with the opportunity to read more from wherever those words came from, plus it would be polite to the author of the article where you found these quotes.
ReplyDeleteIt would also be interesting to hear what ideas you have for what this Linux-powered future of gaming may bring. How will gamers & consoles benefit from Linux?